Furiosa: Myth Making in the Wasteland
By now you know what to expect from a Mad Max film: long set pieces of carnage, characters that are as inventive and bizarre as the vehicles, strange refractions of society, and little dialogue. And so of course we start George Miller’s latest entry… on a horse!?
Miller has spent decades making a truly alien world feel familiar, so first scene in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a winking readjustment. We’re not immediately thrown into the barren wasteland, but a small grove of fruit trees. But don’t worry, it only takes a few minutes for the action to start in earnest. While picking fruit, a young Furiosa discovers raiders and decides to sabotage their motorcycles. She only succeeds in getting kidnapped, however, sending her mother (Charlee Fraser) racing after her.
Furiosa acts as a prequel to Miller’s wild and acclaimed Fury Road. Where the 2015 film brought a sly refocus toward Charlize Theron’s warrior, Furiosa makes it all about how that warrior came to be. Anya Taylor-Joy fully steps into the role, giving a believable version of the younger Furiosa. Here, she’s a bit more optimistic than the woman we know, a bit more hopeful. But the events of life in the wasteland will chip away that hope and instill her with a vengeful spirit. Is a truly flourishing life capable in such a violent place?
Miller organizes his film into episodes that trace Furiosa’s encounters with Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus, the self-proclaimed “beloved ruler of bikerdom.” Dementus is another novel Mad Max creation—he’s not the stuttering, savage villain we’ve come to expect. Instead, he waxes poetic, or at least faux poetic. He’s as likely to say things like “sorrow is more piquant, zesty,” as he is to shoot someone in the head. Hemsworth clearly relishes the chance to be the wasteland’s shitty bard, but he also balances Dementus’ cruelty with stupidity. He thinks himself eloquent and crafty, but he’s neither. Over time it becomes clearer that he’s a doomed, flailing dictator—an empty husk void of real power.
Furiosa goes beyond the character’s backstory, opening up the barren world to new horizons. We get scenes in the Bullet Farm and Gastown, and we cross paths with Immortan Joe and his incestuous clan. But the most fun is in the action, and Miller continues to pull out new ideas. The resonant images from Furiosa will be Dementus’ three-motorcycle chariot and the paraglider attack.
Despite the novelty, Furiosa remains a smaller tale—and a smaller film—than its predecessor. The action is well oiled, but it fails to sniff the operatic heights of Fury Road’s madness. There are brief tastes, but it leaves one wanting more. Perhaps more striking is Furiosa’s reliance on dialogue for a series that has excelled in visual storytelling. There are many more one on one moments between Furiosa and Dementus, Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), and Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke, a bright spot in the movie), and the film aims to build its characters primarily through these scenes. Despite this, Furiosa herself remains a largely silent character. This means that we learn a lot more about others, but little new about our heroine. Fury Road created layered, memorable characters through its action; Furiosa depends on our previous (future) familiarity with her.
There are moments of delight, but Furiosa still can’t quite justify the need for a prequel to this story. Never did I wonder how Furiosa lost her arm or gained a peach pit. Miller is welcome to return to this world as many times as he likes, but the stories are best when untethered from the burdens of explaining and retelling.
